John 12.37-38 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not
follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you
lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not
crow till you have denied me three times. (ESV)
And here at this point of John’s narrative Peter remarks:
“Lord, why can I not follow you now? I
will lay down my life for you.” Bold question Pete. Bold statement as well.
In Jeremiah 7 are these words: "For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I
did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and
sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your
God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you,
that it may be well with you.’" (Vv. 22,23)
As I thought about Peter’s statement and Jeremiah’s, I
thought: Peter, Jesus doesn’t need you to
lay down your life for Him, what He desires is that you (and everyone else)
obey His voice. What Peter failed to see (and I think we do the same) is
that only God can do and we can only obey. And that is where the rub comes in
humanity’s relationship with God: we want
to do for God and we ask Him to obey us.
Why do I need a God anyway? Why can’t I just live life all
by myself and do what I think I ought?
What a huge question. What a huge misunderstanding of who
I am (and Who He is) when I even ask such a question. I was created by God for
God. God made me all on His own and all He ever asks is that I obey Him. I didn’t
ask to be created, He did that all on His own. Why did He create me? Only He
knows the answer, but all indicators point to the fact that He simply wanted
to. Not capriciousness. Not purposeless. But intentionally.
And so when Peter proclaims what he’s going to do or not
do for God, he just looks stupid; he just looks religious; he just looks so
pathetically human… just like the rest of us who ask big questions and make bold statements to God of
what we’re going to do or not do for Him. God never asks us to do for Him
anything other than obey.
Jesus replies to Peter, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the
rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.” In other words:
Peter you will fail in all you do in life for
Me if you don’t obey Me. Will you
lay down your life for Me? Yes, Peter, you’ll try but you will fail miserably
because you think you have something to offer. You don’t. And all I ask of you
is that you obey Me.
God equips me to do His will in obedience, and He never
asks me to do anything I’m not capable of – all I need do is obey. Where I get
into trouble is when I try to take charge and make God do all the obeying. Me
and my fellow men have been trying to do that since the beginning of our
relationship with Him.
Father, today, may I simply, joyfully, and truly obey.
Amen
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